Hey, This Guy Was Good!

Tweet

Baseball is a game of statistics. People talk about records in the grand old game that’ll never be broken. Among them: *St. Louis Cardinals 3rd baseman Fernando Tatis Sr. hitting two grand slams in the same inning *Cincinnati Reds pitcher Johnny Vander Meer pitching two consecutive no-hitters *Yankee great Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak. Certainly the career victories by Cy Young — 511 — is another record that won’t be broken. These days, we’ll be lucky to see a pitcher get 300 victories in a career, never mind 500! Denton True Young was born in Gilmore, Ohio in 1867. After going to the Gnadenhütten site I ran over Gilmore (seriously, there’s nothing there, not so much as a highway sign telling you that you’re in Gilmore) on my way to Peoli, where Young is buried. The photos above are two different angles of his grave. The top photo shows mementos left: a Reds logo cap (Young never played for the Reds, but this is Ohio), a pack of sunflower seeds, a number of baseballs, and a Cleveland cap. His epitaph describes his victories, no-hitters, and perfect game (which, at the time he pitched it in 1904, wasn’t a big deal [if you look at the news accounts of Vander Meer’s first of two consecutive no-hitters it was barely mentioned as a big deal]). How good was Cy Young? The premiere award in pitching excellence is named for him. It was a necessary stop for a baseball junkie like myself.